3 ms·
Except Rasmus was born on Greenland and was in university in Ontario when he created PHP. Claim Ontario or Canada as a capitalist paradise at your own risk :).
by jarek 15y ago
Except Rasmus was born on Greenland and was in university in Ontario when he created PHP. Claim Ontario or Canada as a capitalist paradise at your own risk :).
- btilly 15y agoRasmus was born on Greenland which is a Danish possession, so he is a Danish citizen by birth. Which makes him a Dane, as I said. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmus_Lerdorf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmus_Lerdorf for verification. Furthermore I didn't make any claims about a "capitalist paradise", either explicitly or implicitly. In fact another of the three is Bjarne Stroustrup, a professor in academia. He may live in the USA, but he's an academic, and academia is generally not filled with rabid capitalists.
- jarek 15y agoI'm not sure how a data point this specific is then interesting for this subject. Three people, having been born as Danish citizens, went on to become original creators of three most popular languages today, two of whom did so in generally fairly uncapitalistic environments, now live in the U.S. This is not a small problem for Europe.
- btilly 15y agoIt is interesting because the data point is not an isolated example. From Dijkstra to Torvalds, there are a many prominent examples of top notch computer talent from Europe choosing to live in the USA. The resulting brain drain leaves fewer top people in Europe, and more opportunities for Americans to benefit from that talent. Benefits range from their availability for American businesses to the fact that it is easier to meet and be inspired by that talent if you live in the USA. (Particularly if you live near a tech center like Silicon Valley.)